Common Sense
by Tischen
Summary: Eragon eats mushrooms. Then he devises a plan to defeat Galbatorix. Several plans actually. These plans are actually not very elaborate. They're just common sense. But why hasn't anyone thought of them before? Eragon tries to convince everyone his plans make sense and that he has not gone insane. Updates every week.
1. Name of Names

They gathered around in a circle. Nasuada on a high-backed chair. Angela standing to her right. King Orrin on her left. On the other side of the room, Queen Islanzadi and Oromis appeared through a large scrying mirror. Arya stood next to the mirrors, wondering what was so important that the scrying wards around Du Weldenvarden had been lifted for this. Orik entered the tent as well, along with Saphira's head.

"So, what's the deal here," asked Nasuada impatiently. She was what Eragon had to say which demanded such an assembly.

"Well, it all started when I ate this curious blue-colored mushroom which Angela gave me," Eragon looked at Angela meaningfully.

"That wasn't meant for human consumption!" she exclaimed. "To tell the truth, this is all your fault."

"Say what you must and stop wasting our time", Islanzadi suggested, in a regal but annoyed voice.

"Well," continued Eragon, "it soon became apparent that this mushroom granted the eater the power of common sense."

"So you admit you didn't have any before," said Nasuada dryly.

"That would explain a lot," commented Arya. "Like how you ran off into the Empire after that episode in Helgrind for no good reason."

"Let's just pretend that never happened", suggested Eragon weakly.

"I don't see where we're going with this," said Orrin. "Why should I care about your common sense?"

"Of course," agreed Eragon. "What I have to say is that my newfound common sense has allowed me to realize two things. First, that we have literally no chance of winning against Galbatorix -"

"But we know that already!" Orrin interjected.

"- and second, that we could actually have a good chance of winning against Galbatorix if we tried out a few fantastic ideas I came up with when I was high on mushrooms in Angela's tent this morning", concluded Eragon.

Orrin spluttered, as if Eragon had gone mad, which was not unlikely. Oromis was attentively listening though. Maybe Eragon did have some good ideas. Oromis had done some "experimentation" back when he was a young elf, and still kept an open mind.

"Go ahead, Eragon", he encouraged. Eragon unfolded a sheet of paper on which he had scribbled some notes to himself and began explaining his plans.

"Well I talked to this strange hermit back when I was running across the empire", said Eragon.

"Tenga." Angela said flatly. Eragon nodded in acknowledgement of the name.

"He was talking about a name that Galbatorix was searching for, the Name of Names."

"Sorry, what's this name again?" asked Nasuada.

"By process of elimination, I determined that it was probably something like a true name for the Ancient Language, which lets anyone who knows the name control magic itself."

"If Galbatorix learns the name, he will become nigh undefeatable", said Islanzadi. "This makes it even more essential that we do not delay. We cannot underestimate the power of the Name."

"It's true that the Name of Names is immensely powerful," said Eragon, "which is why I've decided to figure out the name myself, before Galbatorix finds it."

Oromis gagged on his tea.

"I think you underestimate the magnitude of this task", Arya said gently. "You do not even know your own true name, and the search for the Name of Name is vastly more difficult. Many have found their own names, yet none have found the Name."

"Just hear what I have to say," protested Eragon. "When you discover your true name, you know you've found it because you can feel it. You know with absolute conviction that it is your true name, correct?"

Oromis nodded.

"Well, we can expect something similar to happen if I say the Name. I will know that I've found it." continued Eragon. "Now what if we ordered every soldier in the army to start pronouncing random sounds, until we figured out the name?"

"A good idea", Oromis admitted. It was one of very few ideas which had not crossed his mind in the past few decades. "But it won't work for many reasons. First, it's not enough just to say the words. You need the intent behind the words - you need to know what you are searching for."

"No problem", Eragon shot back, "I'll just use magic to force everyone to have the correct intent to find the Name. If Galbatorix can make soldiers feel no pain, this shouldn't be beyond me."

"That's abhorrent", said Nasuada. "To coerce the minds of people into searching for this Name. I don't pretend to completely understand how you intend this to work, but if you do this, will you be any better than Galbatorix?"

Eragon sighed. "I understand that it might be morally questionable. On the other hand, if we always maintain the moral high-ground, then Galbatorix is going to win. We have no choice here. Besides, if this really bothers you so much, I am sure there is a suitable spell which will erase any moral qualms you may have."

Nasuada shrieked internally at the thought of such a spell, and shook her head.

"I am going to lay out how everything will work", said Eragon. "We will create a dedicated division of about one thousand Searchers, and I will cast the appropriate spells, after consulting with Oromis and Glaedr. These spells will force each Searcher to think random thoughts and pronounce random sounds, until the Name is found. In order to optimize our search speed, I will also cast a spell to make people's mouths move at one thousand times normal speed, and the same for their minds. This will take a large amount of energy, but I believe we can do it by taking captives of the Empire and draining them of energy. Cruel, admittedly, but necessary."

Arya nearly cracked a smile at the thought of a human mouth moving a thousand times regular speed. She frowned at the thought of harvesting captives for their energy, but perhaps Eragon was right about morals. She reflected for a second, then changed her mind. Eragon was definitely wrong about morals. She was over a hundred years old, and therefore, had thought about morality for much longer than he had. There was no way he could be correct.

"Galbatorix has planted many spies among your armies", Islanzadi said. "If they are among your searchers, and one of them finds the Name, Galbatorix will know about it immediately"

"Even if you make sure none of the Searchers are spies," Nasuada said, "a spy could steal the Name from their minds as soon as they discovered it, correct?"

"You are correct of course," said Eragon. "This is why I will also need to encrypt the minds of every Searcher, to prevent anyone from stealing information"

"What do you mean by encrypting a mind", asked Orik.

"The Varden regularly encrypts messages it sends to officers," said Eragon. "It stands to reason that thoughts can be encrypted too. When we want to send encrypted messages, we need someone to encrypt and decrypt the messages. However, to encrypt thoughts, there needs to be a spell doing the decryption and encryption automatically so that the user of the brain doesn't go into a coma from not being able to process anything."

"And how exactly does such a spell work?", asked Islanzadi.

"Ah... " Eragon started. "I was kind of hoping we had some experts on mathematics and neuroscience here so I could figure that all out. Anyone here?"

Silence.

Then King Orrin spoke up, sounding slightly nervous. "I may have some experience in those areas."

"Excellent. We will start studying brain encryption tomorrow at dawn", announced Eragon, as if everything was settled, "and if all goes well, I should have the Name of Names by the end of next week. Galbatorix won't know what hit him"

"Your brain encryption idea is quite clever", admitted Nasuada. "If you can pull it off, we will be able to share information freely, without risking it falling into the wrong hands. Imagine if any enemy magician breaks into the mind of one of our generals, only to find that what's contained inside is incomprehensible and undecodable to him."

"I agree", said Orik, "and I'm beginning to think that all we need to do to win this war is to force-feed Eragon more mushrooms."


	2. Energy Logistics

Note :

To returning readers, I've switched the first and second chapters around. I did this because I thought the (former) first chapter was rather dry and less interesting. Therefore, if you're a returning reader, you have probably already read the chapter below, and have not read what is now the first chapter.

To new readers, I feel this chapter is somewhat less interesting than the previous, or, I expect, the next chapter. Feel free to skip it, since nothing will be lost, and I promise that everything else will make sense without this chapter.

* * *

In the modern world, water pipes and the electrical grid distribute essential goods to people. In the Inheritance Cycle, energy is essential to performing magic. But then, why isn't there a system for distributing energy to magicians? Let's find out in this chapter.

* * *

Eragon continued speaking. "So I noticed that people keep on dying because they run out of energy. Remember King Hrothgar? We might've saved him from Murtagh's attack, if Du Vrangr Gata and I had been there."

"But you couldn't have been there," pointed out Orik, "because you were in the middle of your own battle."

"Yes," Eragon agreed, "but it wasn't like I was very tired. I had a huge amount of energy stored up, especially in Brom's ring. The problem isn't that I was out of energy, it was that I couldn't get the energy from the ring to Hrothgar. And remember when Murtagh was able to overpower me before I had help from Blodhgarm and the elves? All along, we had what we needed to defeat Murtagh. The problem was that I was stuck on one side of Alagaesia, and the elves with their stores of energy were on the other side."

Islanzadi began nodding, as if she had understood something.

"So what we really need is a way to transport and transfer energy quickly and efficiently. I'm proposing that we organize a system be able to store energy and deliver it to whomever needs it. Here's how it works - we divide everyone into teams of twenty. By everyone, I mean dwarves, men, women, and elves. Every group has one elven spellcaster. Each group is assigned a gem, and at the end of every day, the spellcaster in the group extracts as much energy from everyone in the group as possible and stores it in the gem."

"But how can anyone fight when they're completely exhausted after you rob them of their energy?", asked Nasuada. "We're in the middle of a war."

"Well if there is to be a battle, the magician will transfer the energy from the gem back into whoever is to fight. But key to this system is transferring energy. Suppose Murtagh shows up and tries to kill you with a bolt of magical lightning. None of your wards will help much because he has twenty Eldunari and you have none. If something like this happened, we would have the spellcaster in charge of each group transfer energy from the their gem to the gem of the group you're in. That gem would be linked to your wards, to keep them from failing. And they wouldn't, because Murtagh would have to overcome the combined energy that our entire army has stockpiled over a period of several months, which he can't."

"It's a good idea," said Oromis cautiously, "but it won't work. You can't directly transfer energy directly to another gem that is far away. You could transfer it to the spellcaster of the group, and they could transfer it into the gem, but that process is too slow."

"I have a solution to that too," said Eragon, "In order to directly transfer energy from the gem in one group to the gem in another, you simply teleport the one group's gem inside the other group's gem. That instantly combines the gems energy together."

"Teleportation takes energy though," Oromis pointed out, "and it isn't exactly each to teleport items, especially without knowing the exact destination."

"Since a small gem can store a large amount of energy, we will only be teleporting tiny gems, which actually doesn't take too much energy. I tried this out myself. In addition, teleportation will only be used for long distances. Over short distances, it's more efficient to cast a spell which shoots a gem towards its destination. Just like how I use magic to turn rocks into high speed projectiles in order to kill people."

"That bit about extracting energy from organisms is supposed to be a highly-guarded secret", said Islanzadi, but she didn't sound too disappointed.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures", Arya commented.

"So, do you think it's worth a try?" Eragon asked.

Islanzadi was deep in thought and did not reply. Eragon took that as an affirmative.

"On to my next item then"


	3. Gramarye Mechanics (1)

In this chapter, Eragon and Arya explore the finer mechanics of magic.

* * *

Eragon paced outside his tent. He absentmindedly tossed a pebble up in the air, and then caught it again. He tossed it into the air again, and caught it. After a few minutes of this, he straightened up and called out "Hello Arya", while staring into the sky.

Her head poked out from behind a tent a few meters away.

"What do you think would happen if I tried to kill Galbatorix the most direct way I know, with 'deyja Galbatorix'?" Eragon asked.

"That is not going to end well," Arya said flatly. "Galbatorix is sure to have cast wards against the most basic spells."

"You are correct of course," Eragon replied. "So we need to come up way to outwit him - to go around his spells"

Arya nodded, uncertain where Eragon was going with this.

"But why can't the spell figure out how to go around his wards? Why do we have to do it?"

Confusion flashed across Arya's face. "You always have to figure it out, Eragon. It isn't like a spell can think for itself."

"Ah," Eragon smiled, "But they can!"

He extended his arm, and cast Brisingr. A ball of flame burst into life over his upturned palm. They both marveled at its beauty.

"We know it takes the same amount of energy to make fire with magic as it does without magic."

Arya nodded in agreement.

"And there are a lot of ways to make fire without magic. I could rub two pieces of wood together, or find myself a match, or ask Saphira for help."

Arya nodded again.

"And there are a lot of ways to sustain that fire once it's started. I could find more wood, find a can of oil, or feed Saphira a constant stream of food so she can endlessly produce more fire.

Arya nodded, slower this time. "I think I understand what you're saying", she said. "Some ways of making fire take more energy than others. If magic takes the same amount of energy as doing it without magic, the question is, doing it without magic which way?"

"Exactly!" Eragon grinned. "It can't be the least efficient way, because there are probably ways of starting fires which take enough energy to kill me."

"Well that leaves the other choice, which that casting a spell takes the same amount of energy as doing it the most efficient way."

"And now we're back to killing Galbatorix" said Eragon, "If there's someway of outwitting and killing Galbatorix without having to overwhelm him, then 'deyja Galbatorix' should use that mroe efficient method because a spell always does something the most efficient way."

"I see what you're saying Eragon, but I think before we start drawing conclusions, we need to actually test this out and get some concrete proof that magic actually works this way" said Arya.

* * *

And that conversation was why Arya was currently in the middle of casting one of the most complex spells she'd ever attempted. At the core of the spell was an old elven riddle, the answer to which was "falling dew". The effect of the spell was to levitate a rock about a meter off the ground. She had imbued the spell with a substantial amount of energy, so that it would be difficult to overpower the magic and force the rock back down to earth. However, if the spell heard the answer to the riddle - Arya had given it the ability to listen to sounds in the vicinity - then it would terminate itself and the rock would fall to the ground without any further ado.

The experiment had been proposed by Eragon, who would try casting a direct spell to force the rock to fall with a small amount of energy. If it turned out that magic could actually come up with the most efficient method of getting something done, they would expect the Eragon's magic to come up with the answer to the riddle and whisper it to the rock, causing it to fall. If it turned out that magic could not do any such thing, then the spell would fail, and the rock would remain levitating. Eragon had vehemently demanded that Arya shield her mind and not tell him how she was going to implement her riddle, to avoid the possibility that it would interfere with how magic worked.

Arya finished her spell.

"Brakka du stenr," (release the stone) Eragon commanded.

The stone stayed in the air. Eragon swore.

"Tell me how the spell works."

Arya told him, and Eragon tried again.

"Brakka du stenr!" he shouted. But the stone remained in place.

"It doesn't make sense," he said. "Even if I cast the spell while intending it to release the stone by whispering the password, the spell tries to release the stone directly."

"Actually, that makes a lot of sense," said Arya. "Remember, the ancient language was designed to prevent magicians from being distracted by their thoughts. The whole point is for the spell to be controlled by the words, and to avoid intention from accidentally influencing the spell."

"So if I cast it directly without the ancient language..."

"Try it out."

Eragon carefully cleared his mind. Then, doing his best not to think about the riddle, he willed the rock to fall to the ground by any means.

The rock fell to the ground.

"It seems that directly using magic without the ancient language allows spells to follow the most efficient path." he said. "Of course, for that very reason, it is much more dangerous."

"So all we have to do now is walk up to Galbatorix and kill him with wordless magic," concluded Arya.

"Yes," agreed Eragon. "Still, there is one more think I want to try. Can you cast that spell on a stone again, but use the most difficult puzzle you know."

Arya had protested at first. She was worn out from the complexity of just casting that first spell, but Eragon whined and pleaded.

He also offered her some of those mushrooms from Angela's tent. Secretively, Arya was keen on getting her hands on some of those mushrooms, and Angela had become quite protective of them ever since the incident. So she agreed to run a few more experiments in exchange for a few mushrooms.

* * *

Question for Readers :

I'm worried that I have too much of talking and thinking and not a lot of action in this fiction so far, and I'm worried that this may be boring readers.

Therefore, I would appreciate it if you could leave a review or send me a message if you feel either.

1\. There is not enough action happening (In which case I will add more)

2\. You like this fiction as it is (In which case I can stop worrying)

Thank you.


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